
At the top of the list of the region’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters are two power
plants, according to the EPA data: Vistra Energy’s Masspower plant in Springfield’s
Indian Orchard neighborhood, which produced 283,431 metric tons of CO2
equivalent in 2023, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s physical plant
building, which produced 103,468 metric tons of CO2 equivalent that year.
Other power plants that appear among the EPA’s data include the Massachusetts
Municipal Wholesale Electric Company’s Stony Brook power plant in Ludlow and two
Agawam-based facilities: the Tenaska-owned Berkshire Power plant and Tennessee
Gas Pipeline Station 261, whose parent company is Kinder Morgan.
Two large factories also made the 2023 list of largest greenhouse gas polluters in
the region: the Erving Industries paper mill in Erving and the Eastman Chemical
Company factory in Indian Orchard.
Several landfills are also high on the list of regional greenhouse gas sources. Those
included the capped landfills in Granby, Chicopee, and Northampton. Landfills
constitute a significant source of methane emissions — a greenhouse gas that is at
least 28 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere,
according to the EPA. That’s because organic matter that makes it into landfills, like
food scraps and wood products, releases methane when it decomposes.